Lee is still held in
very high regard by most Southerners.
But their political leaders have been infected with
a disease that slowly dissolves their backbones. For too
many of them, political correctness trumps truth and
honor.

Although I would like
nothing more than to see General Lee restored to a place
of honor by
Southern state governments and by local and national
political leaders, this article will make no invidious
comparisons between Lee and King. Lee would have
forbidden any such discussion. His humility was such
that he was embarrassed by adulation. Following the
War, when Lee was
President of the
college that became
Washington and Lee, he forbade anyone in his
presence to speak ill of his former military adversary,
General Grant.

Such was the sterling
character and code of honor of Robert E. Lee. He was a
just man, dedicated to high principles.

Lee`s life and career
left a legacy of selfless devotion to duty, honor, and
people unmatched in the history of Western civilization.
His was not just a
military heroism, but a moral heroism. His brilliant
accomplishments on the battlefield were outshone in
victory and defeat by the nobility of his moral wisdom
and stainless integrity. His devotion to his soldiers,
his family, the
Southern cause, and
to God became legendary.

There are those who
say that General Lee cannot be honored because he was a
slave-owner. Yet Robert E. Lee set a moral example by
emancipating his slaves early in the War and made
sure that they had such training as to make their way as
free men and women. In fact, in an
1856 letter, Lee stated that:

"In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but
what will acknowledge that slavery as an institution is
a moral and political evil."

of
Stonewall Jackson makes the point that Jackson cannot be
understood apart from his
intense Christian faith. So it is with Confederate
President
Jefferson Davis, scores of Confederate generals, and
hundreds of thousands of
Confederate soldiers in the ranks of the Southern
cause. As Jackson was known for the intensity of his
faith, Lee was known for the sincerity and consistency
of his faith. He cannot be fully understood outside that
context. Neither can the South be fully understood apart
from its spiritual moorings.

In his letters,
orders, short exhortations to his soldiers, and
conversations, Lee made no mystery about the source of
his strength. He was not a man to foolishly rely on his
own strengths and abilities. But let General Lee tell
you in his own words.

"My heart is filled with gratitude to Almighty God
for His unspeakable mercies with which He has
blessed us in this day. For those He granted us from
the beginning of life, and particularly for those He
has vouchsafed us during the past year. What would
have become of us without His crowning help and
protection?" [Source]

"I
have fought against the people of the North because
I believed they were seeking to wrest from the South
dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward
them bitter or vindictive feelings, and I have never
seen the day when I did not pray for them." [Source]

"The truth is this: The march of Providence is so
slow and our desires so impatient; the work of
progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so
feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the
individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb
of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It
is history that teaches us to hope." [Source]

If we are to survive
as a nation, these virtues and the courage to keep them
must be reborn, nourished, and honored. General Lee has
left us a
moral heritage that must be passed to our posterity.

But I do not despair
that Providence will suffer the sterling nobility of
Robert E. Lee to be swept into the dustbin of history by
ignorant busybodies and
groveling politicians. Lee himself might have
counseled us by the words of
2 Timothy 2:3:

"Thou
therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ."

Mike Scruggs [email
him] is a retired financial consultant and corporate
business executive. He holds an MBA from Stanford
University and a BS from the University of Georgia. He
is a USAF combat veteran of the

Vietnam War, holding a Distinguished Flying Cross
and Purple Heart. Until recently he was Chairman of the
Board of a Classical Christian School. He lives in
Hendersonville, North Carolina, and writes a weekly
conservative commentary for the
Asheville Tribune and the Hendersonville
Tribune. He is the